Read Video Transcription▼
A smartphone is usually so fragile to
begin with, and it’s pretty cool that
phone makers are doing their best to at
least make their devices as durable as
they can be. One prime example of that
is the new Honor X90 5G that now offers
an even stronger build than its
predecessor. But is durability the only
thing that makes this phone stand out in
a highly competitive mid-range market?
I’m your host, Earl, and let’s dig
deeper in this full review.
[Music]
Before we get to the bits, let’s talk
about the looks. Coming from last year’s
Honor X9C, there’s not a lot of design
change to see here on the X9D. There’s
still the large circular camera island,
a glossy frame, and the Honor branding
on the lower part of the rear. The
actual differences are the flat frame on
the camera island. The chromatic bezel
is now gone, replaced by relatively
thinner yet rigid outline. You will also
notice that the camera enclosure is not
a whole slab anymore, unlike the X9C.
Instead, it now comes with sort of a
decorative centerpiece having a bunch of
useless text. Our unit is in the reddish
brown colorway with a faux leather back
and a plastic frame. While the rear
panel itself is a resistant to smudges,
the glossy frame is unfortunately not.
So, I had to wipe it clean often.
Thankfully, there is a black jelly case
included in the box to prevent smudges
and to serve as an added protection as
well. Speaking of durability, the X90
had major enhancement. That’s for sure.
You see, this phone has the strongest
level of protection yet, including IP66,
68,69, and wait for it, IP69K along with
a stronger drop resistance and said to
survive a fall from up to 2.5 m. What
does the K mean in IP69K? Well, it means
that the phone can withstand high
temperature water for up to 85° C,
according to Honor. We did a bunch of
durability tests such as dropping it
from a 2 m height, using it as a
chopping board, getting it run over by a
motorbike, and of course blasting it
with water, and the phone survived all
that. Fortunately, for reference, the
Honor X9C only had an IP65 rating and a
drop resistance of 2 m. So, there’s
that. However, like we always say, it’s
a good practice to take at most care for
your electronics since such protection
degrade over time. Think of those as
safety precautions and remember that
warranty doesn’t cover any water or
physical damage. So, you have been
warned. Going back to the X9D, we have
the usual layout for IO’s here. Facing
the screen, you’ll find the power button
and the volume rocker on the right. The
dual SIM tray, a mic, USBC, and a
speaker grill are located at the bottom.
Another mic and the second loudspeaker
are at the top while the left is clear.
Moving over to the display, the X90D
sports a 6.79 inch full HD plus AMOLED
panel with 120 Hz refresh rate and 1,800
nits of luminance in high brightness
mode. And to complement the tough build,
the screen is also made of aluminum
silicate glass for scratch resistance.
The biggest change here from previous
iteration is that Honor finally opted
for a flat edge screen. I’m not saying
that curved screens are bad. It’s just
my preference. No unnecessary glares and
no accidental touches. On top of that,
the bezel size on this thing is
impressively thin, which is roughly 1.3
mm and uniform all around. Now, in my
experience, the display quality is quite
nice with vibrant colors, sharp details,
and deep true blacked of an AMOLED
panel. The phone also has the circadian
display feature that I can appreciate.
As the name suggests, it basically
changes the screen color temperature
automatically to align with your
circadian rhythm, helping users to get
better sleep at night. Surprisingly, the
audio quality is pretty good. It can go
loud with up to 400% volume without
making it sound distorted. The highs are
definitely clear while the mids and bass
come out decently. For biometric
security, the phone supports both face
unlock and an underd display fingerprint
sensor. Both methods register quickly
and there’s even an option to use face
unlock even when you’re wearing surgical
mask. Although my one gripe is that the
fingerprint sensor is placed too low for
my liking, but it works fine
regardlessly. As for the cameras, it’s a
bit disappointing. Though I’m not
referring to the image quality because
I’m rather disappointed about its camera
hardware. Specs- wise, the cameras
remain exactly the same as last year’s
model. It still has a dual rear setup
consisting of 108 MP main shooter with
OAS along with a 5 MP ultra wide lens.
The 16 megap selfie camera here is also
a carryover apparently. That said, we
can really expect some definite
improvement in terms of camera
performance. But setting that thought
aside, the phone still managed to
perform quite well. The image quality
has nice clarity in near accurate color
reproduction and a decent amount of
dynamic range. In regular photo mode,
there are three zoom levels. 0.6 times
using the ultra wide and one times up to
three times for the main camera. The
images captured in one time zoom are
sure Instagram worthy. While in three
time zoom, the details become softer but
still decent for casual social media
snaps. Also, the colors appear to lean
more towards cooler tones in three time
zoom as compared to one time zoom. And
even in low light scenarios, the phone
still managed to produce decent shots.
As for ultra wide shots, they’re
generally decent, except you don’t want
to zoom in on things since the details
here aren’t that sharp. Portrait shots
are a bit excessive at beautifying the
subjects, but the background separation
is decent here. Selfies are also decent,
capturing nice spatial texture and skin
tones. It’s a different story for video
quality, though. The maximum quality is
up to 4K at 60 frames per second from
the rear, and it’s 1080p at 30 frames
per second from the front. While the
colors and details are fine, the
stabilization is a bit rough. Yes, Honor
does say it has OI support. However, I
felt like the video isn’t stabilized
enough. There’s a noticeable shake or
wobble even though I’m just panning the
phone with my bare hands. Another minor
issue that I had is when switching
lenses, say switching from the main
camera to ultra wide, it takes a while
to load. So, this sample video from the
Honor X9D using the front camera and
it’s shooting at 1080p at 30 fps. So,
here’s the stabilization. There’s no
stabilization actually for the front
camera.
So, uh, how does the audio sound? How
does it look? Let us know in the
comments below.
>> Jumping on to performance, our X9D unit
features a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 chip
combined with 12 gig of RAM and 256 gig
of internal storage. Taking a look at
our benchmark results, the phone
achieved decent numbers with over
740,000 points in a 22 version 10. Dick
Bench 6 scores are also good and in 3D
Mark Wildlife graphical test it scored
over 3,700 with an average frame rate of
22 FPS. In actuality, those numbers
translate to mid-optimal performance.
Doing productivity task is smooth with
quick uploading times and navigating
around is a fair experience. Of course,
we tried to play games on this thing in
low demanding titles like Mobile
Legends. The X90 did a good job. It was
able to hover around 75 fps of frame
rate even when the graphics settings are
set to ultra and high. Meanwhile, on
Call of Duty Mobile, while the in-game
settings say that the phone can play all
game modes at 90 frames per second, but
when I tried running an FPS meter, it
went down to 60 fps. Weirdly enough, for
graphic intensive games like Weathering
Waves, regardless whether the graphics
setting is set to high or low, the game
runs at less than 30 frames per second
on average. On the bright side though,
the phone is relatively cool to the
touch, even when playing for hours long.
Onto the software side of things,
interestingly, the X9D doesn’t ship with
the newest software. Instead, it came
with Magic OS 9 based on Android under
15 out of the box. Despite the fact the
UI design still has the familiar EMUI
look, but with better blur effects
through the system, it’s pretty clean
with a few firstparty apps pre-installed
and only adds a folder for app
suggestion when you can uninstall. Aside
from those, there’s no other bloatware
to be seen here. As expected, it comes
with several AI tools that are
conveniently compiled in one place, such
as AI translate, AI writing, and more.
There’s also an AI edit feature inside
the gallery app that includes the usual
stuff like AI erase when you edit photo.
There are also multitasking features
available here such as split and
floating windows. However, there are a
couple of things that Honor hasn’t fixed
or improved yet with this iteration like
not having proper text wrapping on the
control center or having less junky
system animations. As for update policy,
sadly Honor has yet to tell how long the
software support is going to be for the
Honor X9D. Battery wise, the phone packs
a massive 8,300 mAh silicon carbon unit
paired with 66 watts of wire charging.
Now, that amount of battery capacity is
no joke. In our PC Mark battery life
test, the phone managed to get 17 hours
and 23 minutes of run time. And in my
actual experience, the Honor X90’s
battery life honestly felt longer than
that. Also, with that amount of
capacity, I can even charge my
accessories like wireless earbuds. Since
I was mainly using the phone for doom
scrolling and watching videos, the phone
lasted me a little over two days before
needing to recharge. And speaking of
charging, with a supplied 66 watt
charging break, the phone was able to
get from 0% to 100% in less than an hour
and a half. Although, it’s quite a
bummer that it doesn’t support bypass
charging. But when you have that amount
of battery life, I feel that’s
unnecessary. In terms of connectivity,
the phone covers the essentials,
including 5G, NFC, Wi-Fi 6. No Ein
support here, though. Now, before we
drop our verdict, let’s set our
expectation for its price. As of this
recording, Honor hasn’t revealed how
much this X90 is going to cost, but for
reference, last year’s Honor X9C
retailed for 16,899 pesos with 12 gig of
RAM and 256 gig of storage. Taking
everything into account, the Honor XD 5G
gets a noticeable glow up, particularly
in durability, battery life, and the
welcome shift to a flat display instead
of curved ones. These improvements
double as its strongest selling points,
areas where most of its competitors
still fall short in some way. That
massive battery alone easily stands out
as the phone’s biggest highlight
alongside with its stuff built. If
you’re coming from the X9C, this might
be an easy skip. But for everyone else,
the Honor X9D 5G shapes up an
interesting option, especially for users
who are frequently exposed to the
elements. Whether that’s daily commutes
in the rain or work in a more demanding
environments like construction sites or
even frequent travelers who just want a
phone that can take a beating. But what
do you think of the Honor X9D 5G? Will
you get this anytime soon? We’d love to
hear your thoughts in the comments
below. If you find this video helpful or
informative, give this a thumbs up,
subscribe to the channel, and hit that
bell icon so you won’t miss any of our
future uploads. Don’t forget to follow
us on our socials and visit jug.com for
the latest tech news and reviews. Again,
this has been Earl and the Honor X905G.
I’ll see you guys in the next one. Bye.
⚠️ This transcription is auto-generated from YouTube captions. Some text may not be 100% accurate.
Ever dropped your phone and felt that heart-stopping moment? We’ve all been there. That’s why when a smartphone comes along boasting serious durability credentials, it immediately grabs our attention. The new HONOR X9d 5G is making some bold claims about its toughness, promising to survive drops and water in ways that make other mid-rangers look fragile. But here at YugaTech, we know a phone needs to be more than just a tank. It needs to perform. So, while the IP ratings and drop resistance are impressive on paper, the real question is: does this ruggedness come at the cost of everything else that makes a phone great? In our latest video review, Earl takes this promising contender for a spin to see if it’s truly built to last or if its toughness is just a tough act to follow. We go beyond the spec sheet to test it in scenarios that matter to you. Is the camera good enough for your food pics and OOTDs? Can it handle a day of heavy use without begging for a charger? And most importantly, does its ‘everyday luxury’ design feel as good as it looks? We’re peeling back the layers (not literally, it’s too tough for that) to give you the full picture.
What You’ll See in This Video
- HONOR upgraded the durability big time with IP66, IP68, IP69, and even IP69K ratings, plus better drop resistance.
- The design gets subtle tweaks like a flat camera island frame and a new decorative centerpiece, keeping the signature circular camera look.
- Our review unit sports a classy reddish-brown faux leather back that resists fingerprints, but the glossy frame is a smudge magnet.
- A protective black jelly case is included in the box, which is a thoughtful addition for immediate extra protection.
Curious to see if this phone’s tough exterior matches a solid all-around performance? Don’t just take our word for it. Watch our full, in-depth video review to see the HONOR X9d 5G in action and find out if it’s the resilient daily driver you’ve been waiting for.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the IP69K and other ratings mean for the HONOR X9d 5G?
These ratings signify high levels of dust and water resistance. IP69K, in particular, means it can withstand high-pressure, high-temperature water jets, making it very resistant to harsh conditions beyond just rain or spills.
How is the design different from the previous HONOR X9 model?
It keeps the large circular camera island but refines it with a flat frame and a new decorative centerpiece. The overall look is more streamlined compared to the previous full-slab camera enclosure.
Is the phone prone to fingerprints?
The faux leather back on our review unit does a great job resisting smudges. However, the glossy plastic frame around the sides does attract fingerprints quite easily, so you might find yourself wiping it clean often.
Does it come with a case?
Yes. HONOR includes a transparent black jelly case in the box, which is great for adding immediate protection against drops and keeping that glossy frame clean.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main design changes on the Honor X9d 5G compared to its predecessor?
The flat frame on the camera island replaces the chromatic bezel, and the camera enclosure is no longer a whole slab.
Does the Honor X9d 5G have a smudge-resistant back?
The faux leather back is resistant to smudges, but the glossy frame is not.
What colorway is the review unit of the Honor X9d 5G?
The review unit is in a reddish brown colorway with a faux leather back and plastic frame.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply